"reading In The Woods" From The End Of The 18th Century

Painting "Reading in the woods" from the end of the 13th century. French school from the end of the 18th century. Frame with palmettes in the corners. Three young women and a child are reading a book on the edge of a wood, a mountain landscape in the background. They are dressed in a loose dress underlined under the breasts with a belted scarf. Their hair is styled "in the Antique", according to the fashion in vogue under the Directory and the Consulate. The child, a little girl, holds a garland of flowers… Everything here evokes the pre-romantic period, when painters, without "going over the motif", celebrate Nature. The mountain in the background, shrouded in a slightly blurry light, recalls the works of Poussin from the beginning of the previous century, and announces the arrival of a new School, born with the pupils of David. The scene, charming, is however strange: what are these three beauties doing with a book in such a place? What are they reading, smiling contentedly? Why does the child cling to the arm of his sister, or his mother, when the latter does not look at him? The mystery is likely to remain except to launch out in conjectures… A family and particular moment, which one will have wanted to preserve through this portrait of group? A modern allegory of the three Graces and of knowledge? A saucy? It's up to everyone to form an opinion ...